You see, JP Morgan Chase has admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay more than $US920 million ($1.29 billion) to resolve US authorities’ claims of market manipulation in the bank’s trading of metals futures and Treasury securities over an eight-year period.
Hardly surprisingly, this is reported to be the largest sanction ever tied to the illegal practice known as “spoofing”.
Apparently, JP Morgan Chase will pay the biggest monetary penalty ever imposed by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, including a US$436.4 million fine, US$311.7 million in restitution and more than US$172 million in disgorgement.
Now until reading about this massive penalty, Outsider had never heard of ‘spoofing’ but it reportedly involves flooding derivatives markets with orders that traders don’t intend to execute to trick others into moving prices in a desired direction.
Sounds like an average week in Australian politics to Outsider and it is probably best that this week’s Budget is not subjected to scrutiny on the grounds of potential ‘spoofing’.
